Emergency Communication: Successful Messaging for Good Times and Bad

Emergencies are disruptive by nature. They ignite uncertainty, spread confusion, spike stress, and can call for fast and intense responses. These critical moments require quick, concise and consistent communication to manage emergency response and cut through the disarray.

Learn what PR and communication professionals like you can do to prepare during the good times so that you’ll be ready to respond effectively during the bad times. Also…

• Best practices on creating a “successful message” for either period.
• How organizations like the City of Fort Worth and the American Red Cross communicate sensitive and urgent information during a crisis.
• Practical tips and tested strategies you can use.
• What should PR professionals know about working with emergency management?

Gain insight from experienced emergency communication professionals Brian Murnahan, Regional Communications Director for the American Red Cross North Texas Region, and Reyne Telles, Chief Communications Officer for the City of Fort Worth. Their combined experience of over four decades covers numerous types of institutions and emergency scenarios.

We can’t control when the next disaster will occur, but we can control the steps we take to be ready now. Take the first step and join us on February 1 to start getting ready.

Our featured speakers are:

Brian Murnahan, Regional Communications Director for the American Red Cross North Texas Region. He joined the Red Cross team in February 2022, having spent the past ten years as President of his own public relations firm in Fort Worth, Texas. Murnahan has a team of three professional communicators and a crew of great volunteer writers, social media enthusiasts, photographers and videographers to help share the great work done by the Red Cross.

Murnahan has spent 25 years in public relations working for both public and private sector organizations guiding them during good times and bad as they worked with their staff, clients, the public, local officials and regulatory agencies. He is a longtime member of the Greater Fort Worth Public Relations Society of America Board of Directors in numerous roles; the Northeast Tarrant Chamber of Commerce, where he served on the executive committee four of the past five years and was on the initial board of advisors for IDEA Works, a Fort Worth entrepreneurial incubator among others.

Murnahan has lived in Texas for the past 18 years, all in Tarrant County, with the most recent six in Fort Worth. He is a proud father of two and also has three year-old chihuahua/papillon mix named Whiz and a seven year-old cat, Rory.

Reyne Telles, Chief Communications Officer for the City of Fort Worth. Telles has more than two decades of professional experience and, most recently, was vice president and Public Sector Practice leader with Cooksey Communications. Telles guided Cooksey’s governmental clients through in-depth communications audits, institutional planning and execution of engagement approaches that target and reach key stakeholders.

Prior to Cooksey Communications, Telles spent six years as the executive director of communications and community engagement for the Austin Independent School District, where he led marketing, stakeholder and communications efforts that supported 130 schools and 81,000 students. He managed a department of more than 40 employees, which included a Lone Star Emmy-nominated, 24/7 public access television station, as well as the team responsible for the outreach and messaging behind a successful $1.1 billion bond (the largest in Central Texas history by any public sector entity at the time).

Telles also spent six years with the City of Austin, the 11th-largest municipality in the country, as their media relations manager, where he earned recognition multiple times from the Texas Association of Municipal Information Officers for Best Media Relations and Best Social Media. He has also served as the director of communications for Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell, building an executive-level communications plan and securing an appearance for the mayor on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”

In addition to having FEMA-National Incident Management System training and strong Emergency Operations Center experience, he has worked as a political reporter with a CBS affiliate, as a press secretary with the New Mexico Legislature and in nonprofit communications. He received his bachelor’s degree in communication and political science from Eastern New Mexico University and his master’s degree from the Lyndon Baines Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin.

This event is generously sponsored by MGM Printing Services, Inc., a one-stop solution for all types of commercial printing, business forms and promotional items.

Buy your tickets by 11:59 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 26, the catering deadline for our venue.

We look forward to seeing you!

Host or Publisher Greater Fort Worth Chapter PRSA